Run to Win

This week last year dealt mostly with current news with a the odd random article thrown in.

• Scott started off a discussion on technology and fitness by discussing the sustainable gym. They seem to be getting more popular as time goes on.
• I created a 4^th of July race recap to celebrate the 4561+ people that competed last year.
• In Olympic news, the IOC announced the new Olympic selection process for deciding which sports to include or drop in future games.
• Alberto Salazar was hospitalized after having a heart attack while coaching.
• This week two years ago, I spoke about how one of the best things about the Fourth of July are all of the Fourth of July races you can find in every state. I also did a recap of the 2006 Fourth of July races. I followed that up by describing one of the my favorite runs from preseason in college, the beach run. In running news, Sam Thompson beat out Dean Karnazes as the first person to run 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days.

This week last year I had marathons on my mind.

• I wrote a lengthy article that explains why 50 Marathons in 50 Days is impressive. The sport can not really afford to be insular, and people like Dean Karnazes and Sam Thompson can much more easily relate to the “average” runner than somebody like Scott Jurek or Robert Cheriyout.
• On a personal note, it took 5 weeks of low mileage to decondition. I managed to regain that level of fitness in the two months that I had before the New York City Marathon, though, so it was only a temporary setback. I also began lifting weights with a wedding ring on, which has surprisingly enough brought in quite a bit of search traffic to the website.
• The B.A.A. published a press release that they were going to move up the start of the Boston Marathon by 2 hours to 10:00 a.m. I predicted that there was going to be a blizzard due to the earlier starting time (despite my approval of moving the race up), and I was not too far off of the mark. A Nor’Easter blew through right before the race.

In a continuing collaboration with Scott over at Straight to the Bar, we will be writing about training and media influences throughout the month of August. I would like to start the discussion about how much the media colors our perceptions of athletes, specifically referencing Dean Karnazes.

Dean Karnazes is almost a household name.

He has inspired hundreds if not thousands of people to change their lives and become more fit. He wrote a humorous look at how an ordinary person can train himself to do extraordinary things in his book, Ultramarathon Man. He has raised a lot of money for various charities through his extreme feats of endurance. He is very personable, and a master at promoting both himself and his causes.

He also rubs a lot of people in the ultramarathon community the wrong way. His often blatant self-promotion gets on a lot of people’s nerves, and even Karnazes himself will be the first to admit that there are people out there that are much better than him at some (or even most) of the events that he competes in or stages.
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This week last year was chock full of races in Maine. It was this year as well. Most of the news had to do with running in some shape or another.

• I spoke about how one of the best things about the Fourth of July are all of the Fourth of July races you can find in every state. I also did a recap of all of the Fourth of July races that I was aware of in Maine. I also ran a fartlek style interval workout the day after the races.
• One of the my favorite runs from preseason in college was the beach run along Daytona Beach. I recommend it for anybody that is down there, although I’m sure that you could have equal success with some of the other beaches in this country.
• Sam Thompson beat out Dean Karnazes as the first person to run 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days. He had just started his trek.
• Two years ago, I wrote a review of Sportshoe Center, a local running store. I also complained about the lack of runner-friendly roads on Long Island and idiots that run on the wrong side of the road.

2006 has been a really busy year here at Run to Win. The website has really grown. I have written a total of about 750 articles so far, with around 900 comments and trackbacks on those articles. I have been taking a look at some of the most popular content over the past year, and some of it surprises me a little bit.

Based on total traffic throughout the year, my most popular topic that I wrote about is Dean Karnazes and his announcement to run 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days. His announcement back in April and the coverage this Autumn as he ran it drove quite a bit of traffic through the site, as did Sam Thompson’s 50 marathon feat which finished up as Dean was starting.

The next most popular article was just a one off workout tip that I wrote about eating before and after working out last March. I have touched on diet quite a few times this years, giving my views and offering advice; I even hit on some zany ideas like intuitive eating. None of those articles were nearly as popular, though, or had as much time to be popular.

My series of articles on The New Rules of Lifting was also extremely popular. I hope that a few people decided to pick up a copy of the book, because I have been using workouts from it all year and have been very happy with my results. It probably did not hurt that one of the book’s authors, Alwyn Cosgrove, responded to the review. I shared my thoughts on all 20 new rules of lifting for those that wanted a preview of the first half of the book. The best part was definately the workout plans, though.

The series of articles that I wrote about Marathon Preparation this Autumn did not really have time to get enough eyeballs on it to make it to my official list, but I have no doubt it will be one of my most popular topics over the coming year. The past 2 or 3 months have shown that the tips in this 9 article series is very much in demand.

After reviewing Coast to Coast, I held a contest for a free copy of the book. I was rooting for a friend of mine to win the free copy, but I didn’t rig the system so somebody that I did not know wound up winning. By coincidence, it was somebody that is currently going to RIT. I also discovered that a current teammate of mine had also done a relay from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean about 20 years ago. That was when I discovered that transcontinental relay record.

I was a little bit surprised that my series about shoe maintenance was not more popular. I wrote all 12 articles ahead of time and had them appear on this site while I was on my honeymoon. My video about how to keep your shoes tied, however, was also very popular. It was helped in part by being a part of a group writing project over at ProBlogger, as is this article, for that matter!

I am looking forward to 2007, and have a lot of plans on ways to improve this website and provide even more valuable content for you. Until then, enjoy your holidays, and check out a few more retrospectives and looks ahead over at the ProBlogger group writing project.

I have written previously about how Dean Karnazes and Sam Thompson were running 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days. By the way, Sam finished his marathons on the 22^nd of August.

Today, I am going to use those 50 marathon events as examples of why doing something like that is impressive. The reason that I feel a need to mention this is because Adeel at Complete Running thinks that 50 marathons is not impressive at all. Adeel has a very well thought out article, and I recommend that you read it in full. However, I think that he is interpreting the news in completely the wrong way. To keep this (somewhat) brief, I am going to only concentrate on one facet of why I disagree with Adeel’s stance, since some of the other reasons are appearing in the comments of that thread and I do not want to write something that will take 30 minutes to read.
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Apparently, Dean Karnazes was not the first to think of running an “Endurance 50″ style event. Sam Thompson has already begun to run 50 Marathons in 50 States in 50 Days. He began on July 1^st in Colorado, and will finish on August 19^th in Mississippi. Dean Karnazes begins his promotion on September 17^th. The purpose behind Sam’s run?

To raise both awareness of the devastation that still remains along the Mississippi Gulf Coast left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and funds in order to continue the work of rebuilding homes and lives in the area. The hope and determination of the Gulf Coast region has been amazing to witness firsthand, and perhaps equally amazing has been the outpouring of aid from every corner of this great country. Though media coverage for the Mississippi Gulf Coast has faded from the spotlight over the past months, great needs still remain. With a new hurricane season on the horizon, there are thousands of people now living in nothing more than small travel trailers, and still others who have yet to receive any form of housing at all. This effort will touch the nation on not only a national level, but also a very local level, reminding the country that �Everything is not fixed.� There is nothing more refreshing than seeing our nation pour out their generosity to help their brothers and sisters in need.

Sam has a blog following his progress as he runs each marathon available at his website. It is very exciting to see this happening twice, and I hope that both Sam Thompson and Dean Karnazes are able to finish their runs injury free. Unfortunately, I will not be able to get up to see Sam run the Paul Bunyon course as it is about 2 hours north of me while I am working, but I will see if I can get my brother or my uncles out to cheer him on.

Thanks to gm for the heads up.